Which CEOs do you admire, locally and nationally?C.J. DeCrescente. I grew up with him in business. He’s a great leader. Dave Prescott of IntegraOptics. That company has grown 250 percent in the past few years, and he’s doing a whole new thing. Tom Caulfield of GlobalFoundries. Nationally, there’s a restaurant guy, Danny Meyer, who started with one little restaurant in New York City at Gramercy Park and Union Square, and he’s created a company that just spews hospitality. He’s developed a lot of great concepts, and now he’s making Shake Shack big.

Which local companies do you admire? DeCrescente, IntegraOptics, GlobalFoundries. Another one: Regeneron. That’s an incredible company. They’re growing exponentially, taking over campuses and hiring people. It shows the local talent that we have is pretty incredible.

Who or what is currently disrupting your business or industry? Biggest thing that disrupts our business is the government. Gratuities, raising the minimum wage, the wait staff raise to $7.50 an hour, it all creates a ripple effect. If waiters get a raise, you have to do something for the people in the back of the house. Another issue is the cost of food. It fluctuates so much. You might not be able to get Brussels sprouts for a month. Or zucchini goes from $5 a case to $40 the next month. And talent. We have the hardest time with talent. We’re short so many people. I was nervous this year in Saratoga because we didn’t always have the people we needed to do the business we usually do. The local success of the economy makes it tougher because people have so many other options.

How do you find the right people? We just hired a full-time talent acquisition and retention person. All they do is look for talent and try to make sure people will stay here.

Do you think hiring the right people is a science or an art? Little bit of both. They need to pass tests to make sure they’ll fit with our culture and drink the Kool-Aid. We’re a totally relationship-driven company. They have to buy in. We do things a little differently.

How do you retain employees? I meet with 10 to 15 people a month, chosen randomly. I just like to have them understand what our philosophy and culture is, so they understand the story. Not everyone knows that 30 years ago, I worked every party, and now we’re so big I can’t get to every location every day, like I used to.

Biggest challenge to stay No. 1 in 2016? Definitely talent. You can’t keep this big thing running without great people. Finding the right people is everything. For years, I made every big decision. Well we’re now too big, so I have to rely on other people to make big decisions. Talent is the whole thing, and if we have the right people, we’ll do great.

Which companies are gunning to take your No. 1 spot locally? As you look over your shoulder and wonder who’s coming up, I’d like to say someone but I don’t know if there’s any one company because we’re so diversified. I think everybody is coming for us. We haven’t had any national steakhouses like Morton’s, Ruth Chris or Capital Grill open here, or get a celebrity chef in the area, like a Daniel Boulud or somebody. That would make me take notice. (Interview was done before it was announced Morton’s will open at Saratoga Casino and Raceway)

Being No. 1 in your industry in the area, what’s your company’s role in the local economy? I think we contribute in a lot of ways. We have 1,000 employees and millions in payroll. We contribute philanthropically to many organizations in the community. I’m on many boards. We work with the chambers across the Capital Region ... I think we’re pretty involved.

What are your expectations for the economy in 2016? I think we’re positioned to take big steps locally, community-wise and company-wise. I’ve been here since 1976, and the metamorphosis from then to now is amazing. What’s going on in the area is incredible.

The big thing for the company is that I’m always looking forward and asking what are we going to need? The 2007 crash, we lost $500,000 that year on Christmas parties. I said, “We gotta do something different.” So we did the business dining division, with Golub and Regeneron and others. That part of our company has quadrupled; it’s the fastest-growing part right now. Last year I thought: what’s our next big thing? Prime Life, our senior living division. I think there’s a huge market there, and people who are doing it are doing a bad job with it. These people, that’s all they have to look forward to, going to the dining room and eating. And they go, and they’re getting bad food. They know good food. I think it’s an open market for us, but we need the talent. It’s all about that talent.